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perfection. The reason of this is perhaps that the upright citizen stakes his reputation and rests his thoughts upon his character in the market, and therefore puts no restraint upon the natural roughness of his manners, while the other, knowing that he deserves no praise for his transactions abroad, ashamed of the part he has there acted, and perhaps really gifted with a kind and pleasure-loving disposition, strives to compromise with his conscience for the guilt of defrauding those for whom he has no personal affection, by rendering those around him happy.

I remember once having had occasion, as an executor, to prosecute a suit against Mr. Thompson. My lawyer informed me that he knew the person well. "It is almost hopeless," said he, "to continue your action, for although the fellow has a lucrative business, is independent of the world, and could, if it so pleased him, pay every debt and lead an honest and reputable life, yet he is cursed with a natural propensity to cheat his fellow creatures. I believe with him it is a sort of agreeable excitement, like gambling, which habit has rendered necessary. He has been so long availing himself of every deficiency and quibble of the law, is so well versed in the practice of our various courts of justice, and understands so well the arts by which liabilities may be eluded, that I can promise you very little advantage from the suit."

I do not distinctly recollect the means by which he escaped our vigilance; but the claim was never recovered, and Mr. Thompson laughed at us in his sleeve. I could not even catch a glimpse of the fellow, whom, however, I pictured in my imagination as a ferocious and black-browed looking bully, rendered hideous by every repulsive quality, both of mind and person.

Many months afterward, when indeed the affair had almost escaped my memory, I was one quiet summer afternoon invited by a friend to accompany him on a sailing expedition. We started from Whitehall in a fine light sail boat. The first almost imperceptible shadow of evening was just cooling the air and softening the landscape. The sun had disappeared from the cloudless sky, leaving behind him a radiant track of blended orange and crimson, which stole up to the very

summit of the heavens. Our little bark floated through the water, and bore us to a cottage on the opposite shore, where we landed and left our boat to the care of a servant.

I will introduce you," said my companion, "to a friend of mine, who has selected this charming spot, built yonder neat and beautiful dwelling, and decorated it as you see. He is of a kind and hospitable disposition, and will meet you with a cordial welcome. Among the attractions which I know will afford you pleasure, his wife and children are by no means the most unimportant."

A gentleman stepped out, as he finished speaking, from the wicket-gate, which, by the side of the highly cultivated and bright looking garden, led on to the grassy and deep green lawn fronting the mansion. The building was low and plain, but spacious. The exterior was of that clear white, which, in the country, gleams so prettily through foliage. Several vines of different kinds were springing up luxuriantly around the columns which supported the piazzas; green blinds shaded the windows, and many large trees grew around in groups, some lifting tall trunks high in the air; others spreading low thick and tangled branches so as to form a more impenetrable shade. Altogether, the scene wore an air of striking neatness and pleasant quiet, which touches the mind wearied with the city's din, and awakens idle dreams of retirement and rural happiness.

The evening dew was just falling upon the fields, the vines, trees, and flowers, and called forth the delicious perfume of a thousand breathing plants. A bright star flashed like a lonely diamond on the brow of night; and the water dashed gently against the beach. thought I had scarcely ever beheld a scene more beautiful.

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A glance discovered to me what I have taken so long to describe, and I had no sooner cast around me a look of admiration than the stranger took me kindly by the hand, and by his gentlemanly and graceful attentions made me feel immediately on the footing of an old friend.

The rooms were furnished with taste bordering on

splendor, with a costly piano, massive mahogany tables of the deepest and richest stain, flute, library, and pictures. The Spectator, Shakspeare, Byron, Shelley, Coleridge, Keats, and White, were lying on the stand, London editions, in Russia binding. As my friend predicted, the wife and children were irresistible. The former was young and shy, but very pretty, the fairest of all fair complexions; a mouth, which-but being a married lady she shall go undescribed, although her eyes were large and blue, and her foot the "“loveliest of remembered things." The children, two boys and two girls, were, if possible, an improvement of the mother. The same silken hair, but of a brighter gold; the same style of face, but more perfect and shadowless; such warm, earnest, radiant countenances, as enchain the attention like a spell, and make one's soul sink within him, that he is not a painter; and as for their voices, they may talk of operas, recitatives, choruses; they may even tell of the humming of bees, the rustling of branches, and the gurgling of waters, but give me the tone of a sweet child when its spirit is awake, and the brightness of its new born thoughts is glowing on its cheek, and flashing in its eyes. A meal, the zest of which was by no means diminished by our admiration of every thing around, being finished, the affectionate husband and father, with a kind of pride as graceful as it was well grounded, led his wife to the piano. The brilliancy of her playing, and the taste and feeling with which she sang surprised me. I was yet more agreeably disappointed, when her husband placed before her a duet, and accompanied her with a voice so deep, rich, and mellow, that the very children gathered around and listened in silence. We were afterward called to admire some paintings.

"I love paintings," said our host," and could not live without them any more than without music. For this one," continued he, "I paid five hundred dollars, and the same for the one opposite. They are said to be originals by Raphael, and at least perplex the most practised connoisseurs; and now," added he, in a lively tone, as his little daughter put up her red lips to kiss him, and shook back the masses of golden curls from her

lovely face, "let us have a dance, my children, and then the little ones must be off to bed."

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They were just four, and as they performed a lively dance which they had been taught by their mother, I was much struck with the affectionate pleasure which the father took in contemplating them, and the good sense and benevolence which he discovered in his words as well as his actions. A smile of perfect content overspread his handsome face as he spoke: you see, gentlemen, where I find my happiness. To me these are the treasures of the world, and this spot its centre. My philosophy instructs me that whatever makes this scene pleasant, beautiful or attractive-whatever renders it more delightful to me, or enhances the cheerfulness and joy of these little careless inmates, is of the highest importance and value. Beside this the world offers me absolutely nothing. Fame, wealth, travel, power, the opinion of men, are all such vain and empty things to me, that I wonder when I read what pains my fellow creatures take to obtain them. I pursue my business only to insure a uniform and moderate income, which leaves me abundant leisure to enjoy rural sports and domestic occupations. I am fond of reading, music, drawing; I dote on my wife and children; as long as they are happy, I am content, and have nothing to disturb my uniform tranquillity but the fear that one day the circle may be broken-that sickness may seize one of these dear beings-that some bright head may be laid low-that some sweet voice may be hushed." I thought I perceived something like moisture in his eyes. I am sure I felt a dimness in my own. I shook him by the hand as he said " good night," with a respect, admiration, and love, rarely exceded on so brief an acquaint

ance.

We put forth in our little boat from the shore. Starry night now usurped the sky, and the city, with its innumerable flashing lights, lay stretched out before us on the water.

"That man,' ," said I," is a model. He is the best, the truest, the happiest philosopher that ever existed." "He is the most unprincipled rascal I ever knew," said my companion. "His beautiful house and grounds have been paid for by confiding creditors, whom he has

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cheated deliberately out of thousands. I would not trust him with a dollar. I admire his family, who are totally unacquainted with his dishonest habits. He has taken the benefit of the act three or four times. see how he lives. He will cannot judge of men in a deceptive than character.” Thompson.

cheat you if he can. hurry, and nothing is more My friend spoke of Mr.

CITY RAMBLES.

DID you ever read any thing more delightful in their way, Messrs. Editors, than Miss Mitford's sketches? How thoroughly they are embued with the genuine taste for the poetic and beautiful in nature. There is a summer brightness and luxuriance in her imagination, and, to me, it is as delicious to escape from the triste pomposity of more learned writers, to the brilliancy and freshness of her pages, as it is to steal from the eternal jangle of business, and all the jostle and din of the city, and to sit down on some grassy bank, where the whirring of the bird's wing and the warble of his song are heard, with the sound of the many branches, and where some dimpling and transparent brook, leaps on its course with the silvery bubbles floating and flashing on its surface, and the dash of its tiny waves bursting out like the laughter of a beautiful and happy child. The influence of such a writer on the moral world is inestimable. She imparts not the mysteries of science; she teaches happiness. She directs the attention to the picturesque groupings which are continually forming and breaking away around us. Her sadness is like the shadow of a cloud, which, if dissolved into a shower, only leaves the heavens bluer, the grass and woods greener, and all nature more animated than before. I never met a mind more susceptible to every varying and delicate influence. It is a finely toned instrument upon which every passing event makes music. Her tenderness is that of the poet, or the woman, while her mirth has the irrepressible

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